LOS ANGELES – In a Mars first, the rover Curiosity has drilled into a rock and prepared to dump a pinch of powder into its onboard laboratories for closer inspection.
The feat marked another milestone for the car-size rover, which landed last year to much fanfare on an ambitious hunt to determine whether ancient environmental conditions were favorable for microbes.
Using the drill at the end of its robotic arm, Curiosity on Friday chipped away at a flat, veined rock bearing numerous signs of past water flow. After nearly seven minutes of pounding, the result was a drill hole. Images beamed back to Earth showed a fresh bore hole next to a shallower test hole Curiosity had made earlier. It will take several days before Curiosity transfers the powder to its instruments to analyze the chemical and mineral makeup.
The exercise was so complex that engineers spent several days commanding Curiosity to tap the rock outcrop, drill test holes and perform a “minidrill” in anticipation of the real show.
Previous Mars landings carried tools that scraped away the exterior layers of rocks and dirt. None, however, could bore deep into rocks and collect interior samples.
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